Ideas to Help You Take Control with our Hot Water and Heating Controls
Being in control of your home heating controls could mean big savings for you, so read our top tips to see how small changes can make a big difference - but first it's important o know what kind of system you have.
Whether you heat your home and hot water using gas, oil, LPG or
electricity, the right heating controls and knowing how to set them
correctly will help you get the best from your heating controls.
An appropriate set of heating controls make it easy to keep your home
at a comfortable temperature. They’ll help you to consume less fuel
and heat too – keeping your heating bills and CO2 emissions down.
What kinds of heating controls could work for your home?
Firstly, you need to work out what kind of heating controlled system you have. If your home is heated by a system of water-filled pipes and radiators, then you have a ‘wet’ central heating system. Typically, ‘wet’ central heating systems consist of a boiler – either non-condensing or condensing, and then either combination (‘combi’) or regular – plus radiators and a pump. If your boiler is NOT a combination boiler, your home will also have a hot water cylinder and a cold water storage tank.Combination or ‘combi’ boilers heat your hot water just before it comes out of the tap, rather than storing it in a cylinder with linked heating controls. So, if your boiler starts up every time your hot taps are turned on, then it is likely to be a ‘combi’. You can also tell you have a ‘combi’ if:
- Your boiler has five pipes coming out of it – two for the heating system, two for hot water and one for gas.
- You don’t have a hot water cylinder, over-tap electric water heaters.
Are your Heating Controls Linked to a Condensing or a Non-Condensing Boiler?
A good way to tell is to look at the flue that sticks out through your outdoor wall from the back of your boiler. If the flue is made of plastic which consists of a pipe within a pipe and lets out a white plume of steam when the boiler is working, you are likely to have a condensing boiler.Non-condensing boilers generally have a metal flue because the gases it lets out are much hotter. Because they are so hot, these gases will normally be invisible. If you have a gas, LPG or oil-fired central heating controls and hot water system, your full set of controls should ideally include a boiler thermostat, a timer or programmer, a room thermostat and thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs). If your boiler is not a combination boiler, you will also need a hot water cylinder thermostat.